My thoughts on the Xbox One X

So, its been over a month since the reveal of the One X. I sat watching the Microsoft conference with my phone constantly refreshing an Amazon page to be one of the first to pre-order one of these beasts. I pre-order practically every major console release so this is nothing new, but there is something about the One X that has me especially excited. However, I think i may be in the minority....

You see, I am the exact kind of customer Microsoft is aiming this launch at. I have a 4K HDR ready TV. A number of 4k Blu-rays already in my collection and ( as i mentioned above) I love to have the latest bit of kit to play with. I watched the conference in 4K through Mixer on my Xbox one S and the 4K footage of Forza 7, Metro last light and Ori: The will of the wisps absolutely floored me. This is the kind of graphical leap I expected when moving from the Xbox 360/PS3 generation and it seems like technology has caught up with peoples demands.

However, this may not be a good thing. One phrase you may have noticed jumping out at you above is 4K. The fact of the matter is, a large percentage of homes still have a 1080 display and spending upwards of £1000 to get a TV that does HDR justice is a big ask for people and that's without factoring in the £449 ($499) cost of the system itself. Phil Spencer has assured people that there will be a noticeable upgrade in picture quality for customers who are playing on 1080p displays but as far as I can see, this depends on developers themselves implementing different specs into their games as they do with PC releases. This means extra development time for developers to create a standard xbox mode, a 60fps super sampling mode for One X adopters on 1080p displays and a final 4K whistles and bells version. This extra development also creates a further problem- the PS4 Pro.

Sony released their own Mid-gen refresh console earlier this year which also plays 4K games ( but not 4K blu-rays). The PS4 platform has outsold the Xbox generation pretty soundly since launch. This has created a large player base that have already invested into the PS4 ecosystem with digital games purchases attached to their PSN ID. Sony have also released sales figures that show that 1 in 5 PS4 systems sold is a pro model. This creates another potential crossroads when it comes to multi-platform development. Do I put in a few months extra work into an optimised build for the new Xbox one X, A system which will probably account for less than 5% of your total player base? Or do I simply develop a PS4 Pro version and port that over to the Xbox one X? I know what I would do in that position.

So that leaves us with the first Party Microsoft exclusive releases which even the most hardened of Xbox one fan boys will tell you have been..... Sporadic at best. However, the current crop shown at the show do look great with Sea of thieves gathering a lot of critical interest. Microsoft have also promised that many of their existing games such as Halo 5 and Gears 4 will receive 4K updates on Day one which is nice.

I applaud Microsoft for creating the most powerful console ever created. I also applaud the obvious deal with a demon that took place in order to fit all of that power into a box with a smaller form factor than the One S model. I am just not so sure the majority of the public are ready for it yet. Spencer himself in one of IGN's podcasts ( check out all of IGN's podcast's, they are excellent ), the X is designed to be a premium system. He expects the S model to outsell the X.

However, Despite all of the above criticism i am extremely exited that this exists. Nintendo have proved with the extremely successful launch of the Switch that power doesn't mean sales, but it is nice to have the choice. I for one am looking forward to the day i have the lads round to see Forza 7 on the X and watching their jaws hit the floor, Even if it is something that they will probably never own.

Sometimes it's just nice to say "look what they can achieve with consoles these days".

What are your opinions on the One X ? The comments section below awaits